Dvd Extras Include A Detailed Documentary

On the set of "The New World," William Kelso looks out at the painstakingly recreated Jamestown fort and observes, "It's a time capsule."

Kelso, director of the Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeological Project, was one of many local experts who worked with director Terrence Malick and production designer Jack Fisk to make the look and feel of "The New World" as accurate as possible. Those efforts are the most fascinating element of "Making 'The New World,' " the hour-long documentary that accompanies the DVD version of the film, which comes out today.

Peninsula residents who took pride in "The New World" -- filmed in and around the Williamsburg area in 2004 -- will be thrilled with the documentary, which provides loads of footage spotlighting the film's local sets. We see a helicopter assessment of potential filming locations, the three replica ships the filmmakers borrowed from the Jamestown Settlement, and a section of Berkeley Plantation being transformed into the home of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.

"Making 'The New World' " almost certainly represents a first: A documentary about the making of a major motion picture in which the film's director never appears on camera. Then again, the elusive Malick -- who doesn't grant interviews or allow himself to be photographed on set -- is no ordinary director.

His fans will treasure the hourlong documentary just the same. Fisk, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and actor Christian Bale provide truly interesting insight into Malick's style, which includes cameras that are almost constantly rolling and sets that provide 360 degrees worth of access to the filmmaker in order to get the precise lighting that he wants for any shot.

In his desire to make the sets as authentic as possible, Fisk -- aware that the film was being made within 10 miles of where the original events took place four centuries ago -- had his crew construct the fort and other structures out of entirely local material.

The actors and extras who portrayed the Native Americans were trained and choreographed for the most mundane movements, because the filmmakers believed their body language was part of how they communicated with the European settlers. There is also a brief clip from Q'Orianka Kilcher's screen test in which she simply stands silently before the camera, already projecting the radiant presence that made her performance as Pocahontas so unforgettable.

The "making of" documentary is the only major extra on the DVD. Malick was rumored to be expanding the film to over 3 hours for the DVD release, but instead it checks in at the same 2-hour, 15-minute running time as the theatrical release. Considering that rumor, as well as the documentary's description of Malick's filming style, there almost certainly remains a vast amount of unused footage and deleted scenes that would be coveted by fans of the film. Unfortunately, none of them are presented here. *